Demonstrators at the National Mall protest against the Iranian regime in Washington on October 22, following the death of Mahsa Amini. AP Photo
Demonstrators at the National Mall protest against the Iranian regime in Washington on October 22, following the death of Mahsa Amini. AP Photo
Demonstrators at the National Mall protest against the Iranian regime in Washington on October 22, following the death of Mahsa Amini. AP Photo
Demonstrators at the National Mall protest against the Iranian regime in Washington on October 22, following the death of Mahsa Amini. AP Photo

Mahsa Amini protests: Activists say Iran's crackdown is intensifying


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Iran’s crackdown on a protest movement across the country is intensifying, rights groups say, as senior government officials claimed the protests were entering their final days.

The Centre for Human Rights in Iran said that in Tehran province alone, 3,000 people have been arrested in the past six weeks. Other rights groups say arrests across the country have exceeded 12,000.

Nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died after being detained by morality police for allegedly “inappropriate attire”, have posed one of the boldest challenges to the Iranian regime since protests rocked the country in 2009.

Though the protests do not appear close to toppling the government, unrest has swept the whole country and areas home to ethnic minorities with long-standing grievances against the state, including parts of the Kurdish north and Zahedan, the provincial capital of the Sistan-Balochistan province of south-eastern Iran at the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. The region is home to the Baluch ethnic minority.

Families torn apart

On Sunday, AFP spoke to the husband of a human-rights activist jailed in the country’s notorious Evin prison. Speaking from exile in Paris, Taghi Rahmani described how his imprisoned wife and other detainees were being prevented from having any contact with their families, including their children, and that it amounted to psychological torture.

Mr Rahmani’s wife — prize-winning campaigner Narges Mohammadi — has not seen her 16-year-old twins for seven years and has not seen her husband for a decade.

In a new restriction — an apparent response to the protests, the authorities have now stripped Ms Mohammadi, 50, of her prison telephone cards for the next two months, her husband said.

She had already been blocked by authorities from telephoning her children Ali and Kiana in France for the past seven months: the latest restriction means that she cannot now even speak to her family inside Iran.

“The system of prisons in Iran is torturing families,” Mr Rahmani told AFP in an interview in the French capital.

“It is not just a torture for the prisoner but for the entire family. The children have not heard Narges' voice for the last seven months.”

Crackdown in the south

On Saturday Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) accused a Sunni cleric of agitating against the government and warned it may cost him dearly after he said officials including the supreme leader were responsible for dozens of deaths in the city of Zahedan last month.

Amnesty International has said security forces killed at least 66 people in a crackdown after Friday prayers in Zahedan, in the south-east, on September 30, some of the deadliest unrest during five weeks of protests following Mahsa Amini's death.

Molavi Abdolhamid, Zahedan's leading Sunni cleric, said during his Friday sermon that officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were “responsible before God” for the September 30 killings.

A short statement on Sepah News, the IRGC’s official news site, said: “Mr Abdolhamid, encouraging and agitating youths against the sacred Islamic Republic of Iran may cost you dearly! This is the last warning!”

State media had said that “unidentified armed individuals” opened fire on a police station, prompting security forces to return fire.

After protests erupted in Zahedan again on Friday, the deputy interior minister for security, Majid Mir Ahmadi, said calm had returned, official news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

He said 150 “thugs attacked public property and even those shops belonging to Sunnis”.

On Friday, at least 57 were arrested after protesters — “rioters” — threw rocks and attacked banks in the city, provincial police chief Ahmad Taheri was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA on Friday.

State television said up to 300 protesters marched in the city after Friday prayers. It showed banks and shops with smashed windows.

Mr Abdolhamid, the Sunni cleric, described the September 30 killing as a massacre, saying bullets had been fired at heads and chests. “Scores were killed here. I don't have the exact number. Some have reported 90, some say less, some say more,” he said in the sermon posted on his website.

Rights groups say the government has long discriminated against ethnic minorities including the Kurds, in whose region unrest has also been particularly intense since Amini's death.

The state denies accusations of discrimination.

Iran has blamed unrest on an array of enemies including armed dissidents. The IRGC has attacked bases of armed Iranian Kurdish groups in neighbouring Iraq.

Protesters have sought to stress national unity with chants expressing solidarity between various ethnic groups.

Rights groups Hengaw reported that shopkeepers had gone on strike on Saturday in the provincial capital of Iran's Kurdistan province, Sanandaj, and Saqez — Amini's home town, in addition to Bukan, another north-western city.

The activist news agency HRANA reported on Friday that 244 protesters had been killed in the countrywide unrest, including 32 children. State TV has reported that at least 26 members of the security forces have been killed during the unrest.

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What can you do?

Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses

Seek professional advice from a legal expert

You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor

You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline

In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Director: Scott Cooper

Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong

Rating: 4/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

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TOURNAMENT INFO

Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia

UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Company%20Profile
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The National photo project

Chris Whiteoak, a photographer at The National, spent months taking some of Jacqui Allan's props around the UAE, positioning them perfectly in front of some of the country's most recognisable landmarks. He placed a pirate on Kite Beach, in front of the Burj Al Arab, the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland at the Burj Khalifa, and brought one of Allan's snails (Freddie, which represents her grandfather) to the Dubai Frame. In Abu Dhabi, a dinosaur went to Al Ain's Jebel Hafeet. And a flamingo was taken all the way to the Hatta Mountains. This special project suitably brings to life the quirky nature of Allan's prop shop (and Allan herself!).

Landfill in numbers

• Landfill gas is composed of 50 per cent methane

• Methane is 28 times more harmful than Co2 in terms of global warming

• 11 million total tonnes of waste are being generated annually in Abu Dhabi

• 18,000 tonnes per year of hazardous and medical waste is produced in Abu Dhabi emirate per year

• 20,000 litres of cooking oil produced in Abu Dhabi’s cafeterias and restaurants every day is thrown away

• 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste is from construction and demolition

Updated: October 23, 2022, 7:39 AM